ost as often as he wished. It was perfect
Elysium. Mr. and Mrs. Langley saw little or no company--Miss Jane was
always accessible, never monopolized--the light of her beauty shone, day
after day, for her adorer alone; and his love blossomed in it, fast as
flowers in a hot-house. Passing quickly by all the minor details of the
wooing to arrive the sooner at the grand fact of the winning, let us
simply relate that Mr. Streatfield's object in seeking an introduction
to Mr. Langley was soon explained, and was indeed visible enough long
before the explanation. He was a handsome man, an accomplished man, and
a rich man. His two first qualifications conquered the daughter, and his
third the father. In six weeks Mr. Streatfield was the accepted suitor
of Miss Jane Langley.

The wedding-day was fixed--it was arranged that the marriage should take
place at Langley Hall, whither the family proceeded, leaving the
unwilling lover in London, a prey to all the inexorable business
formalities of the occasion. For ten days did the ruthless
lawyers--those dead weights that burden the back of Hymen--keep their
victim imprisoned in the metropolis, occupied over settlements that
never seemed likely to be settled. But even the long march of the law
has its end like other mortal things: at the expiration of the ten days
all was completed, and Mr. Streatfield found himself at liberty to start
for Langley Hall.

A large party was assembled at the house to grace the approaching
nuptials. There were to be _tableaux_, charades, boating-trips,
riding-excursions, amusements of all sorts--the whole to conclude (in
the play-bill phrase) with the grand climax of the wedding. Mr.
Streatfield arrived late; dinner was ready: he had barely time to dress,
and then bustle into the drawing-room, just as the guests were leaving
it, to offer his arm to Miss Jane--all greetings with friends and
introductions to strangers being postponed till the party met round the
dining-table.

Grace had been said; the covers were taken off; the loud, cheerful hum
of conversation was just beginning, when Mr. Streatfield's eyes met the
eyes of a young lady who was seated opposite, at the table. The guests
near him, observing at the same moment, that he continued standing after
every one else had been placed, glanced at him inquiringly. To their
astonishment and alarm, they observed that his face had suddenly become
deadly pale--his rigid features looked struck by paralysis.